Tag Archives: Stephen Boxer

Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro Adapter: Barney Norris Director: Christopher Haydon Reviewer: Alice Fowler Kazuo Ishiguro's masterpiece is all about the path not taken: a study in regret, the strictures of class and what happens when we refuse to see the truth. Stevens, the butler at the story's heart, is a man careful never to forget his umbrella, but whose own feelings ...

Writer: Barney Norris, from the book by Kazuo Ishiguro Director: Christopher Haydon Reviewer: James Garrington The Remains of the Day is, without doubt, an extraordinary piece of theatre. This world premiere production is based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s masterpiece, and it is done extremely well. Like the book, it contains a great many themes and strands, sometimes interwoven and sometimes standing alone and ...

Writer and Director: Nina Raine Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Hot on the heels of Consent, which scored a West End transfer for the National, comes Nina Raine’s new play Stories, charting one woman’s journey to find a sperm donor. Despite some very fine acting, Stories seems like a pilot for an abandoned TV sitcom from twenty years ago. Anna wants a baby and reaching ...

Writer: James Shirley Director: Justin Audibert Reviewer: Karl O'Doherty Revenge, pride, political ambition, temper and strategy swirl around each other in this 1641 play, creating an entertaining and provocative picture but not yet a tightly woven tapestry. It will be tempting to draw links with any play on political intrigue to modern times, and with such power-plays at the top ...

Writer: David Spicer Director: Michael Fentiman Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Farce, always an underrated theatrical form, is rarely found in new writing, with directors and producers seeming to prefer revivals of the medium. So it is refreshing to see David Spicer's new play, traversing topics from familial guilt to animal rights and the freedoms we will surrender in order those same ...

Writer: John Wolfson Director: Andy Jordan Reviewer: Karl O'Doherty It looks like history, if feels like history, but this is a story that is apparently not something that could ever have been written down so we’ll have to remember to suspend belief. This imagined meeting of real characters began life at the Globe. Moving a few steps away to the ...

Writer: William Nicholson Director: Alastair Whatley Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Starting a play with a university lecture on theology is never going to be the most scintillating of openers for a commercial production. That William Nicholson’s play Shadowlands not only survives from the density of its opening scene but thrives upon it, returning to the lecture’s themes and suffusing them throughout ...

Writer: William Nicholson Director: Alastair Whatley Reviewer:Kelyn Luther Shadowlands, adapted for film in 1993 starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, is based on C.S Lewis’ (Stephen Boxer) relationship with Joy Gresham (Amanda Ryan), an intellectual woman 17 years younger. When she becomes terminally ill, Lewis’ firm ideals of the purpose of suffering and the nature of God are challenged. The ...